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More Mesa 10.2 + Linux 3.14 Benchmarks On Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

03-02-2014, 12:40 PM

Phoronix: More Mesa 10.2 + Linux 3.14 Benchmarks On Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

In verifying and complementing the major R600/RadeonSI performance regressions noted earlier today for a wide-range of AMD Radeon hardware, here's some more tests that were done this weekend on a different system that also finds the newer code to be running slower than Linux 3.13 + Mesa 10.1..

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However, this doesn't appear to be the only cause for the performance drop when upgrading Ubuntu 14.04's graphics stack. Other regressions have also been reported by other users of the open-source AMD driver. "This is not completely from HyperZ and so still worth investigating. We have reports from Luke and dungeon on this forum that confirm there's another regression besides the intended hyperz change. Luke specifically tested it, dungeon's case is media apps that do not use the Z buffer." There's more comments in this forum post about the issue unrelated to HyperZ.

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I have a Mint 16 install that I use for games. I recently got sick and tired of fglrx and the nonsense I have to go through every time I want to use a newer kernel, and the performance regressions (on my hardware) in the last two fglrx betas. (I was stuck on catalyst 13.11 Beta 9.4... the last one that worked decently for me on Linux 3.12.x with my HD 5870 card)

So I built a Linux 3.13.5 kernel, enabling the radeon/DRI options (I had them disabled because I only used fglrx), removed my fglrx debs and rebooted into a much better environment with the open source radeon driver. Desktop stuff and hardare accelerated web browsers actually work better than with fglrx. Windows create and destroy with a snap, switching between virtual desktops is snappier, scrolling is better in the browsers (Chromium and Firefox) and tab switching is instant. Of course, these some of these things don't really matter in the grand scheme of things (milliseconds don't matter to productivity), it's just a matter of perception.

Wow... most of my games (especially source engine games) actually work better with radeon than with fglrx. I was pleasantly surprised. Left4Dead 2 (for one example) which was horrible with fglrx, was stutter free and smooth.

Of course, that left Metro Last Light out in the cold, as it needs a newer OpenGL than the Mesa 9.2 that I had. I was going to forget about Metro LL, because while it worked decently (with the occasional crash) all the way up to that point, it was crashing every time after a load screen with fglrx and I couldn't complete it anyway.

Then I bought Deadfall Adventures, which was crashing on the opening cut scenes (with radeon) and I couldn't even start the game. I managed to skip through them with the space bar and get to the game proper, but it was unplayable.

So I added the xorg-edgers ppa to get Mesa 10 (10.2.0 now) and had much better luck with Deadfall Adventures (not crashing on cut scenes and playable on Medium) and Metro Last Light runs again. It still won't get past that point where it was crashing after a load screen, but at least it runs again, and every bit as well too.

However, I have noticed a regression on the source engine games. A bit of audio and video stuttering after a level loads but mostly fine. Left 4 Dead 2 has a bit of occasional stuttering in game, but still way better than before. Noticeable though, Mesa 9.2 seemed better for those games. Oh well, a necessary evil for now. I'm sure this will improve soon enough.

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What about graphics card noise? I heard bad reports about noise with the radeon driver.

I haven't noticed any extra noise. It's possible the fan may be running more, as the card does seem to run pretty cool (which was one of my concerns, that kept me from ditching fglrx a bit longer) but I don't notice it. I've got a lot of case fans anyway, and a heavy duty bathroom type exhaust fan in the ceiling of my office/computer room that runs 24/7. The sound of the graphics card doesn't come through over the existing white noise, so I'm going to say no on that issue.